Thank You For Playing
by Hawk-Ashes
Summary: All the players earned the Ultimate Prize. The humans and the trolls won and the game is finally over. Its been a year since the new Universe was created, everything seemed back to how it was. Except only one thing felt lost, and it was John's fading memories and his forgotten contact of all his friends. Until a familiar figure in red takes the boy away to meet everyone...


I** DO NOT **own _Homestuck._**  
**

**Theme:** Ultimate Prize AU | **Rating:** T | **Genre:** Friendship | **Warnings:** Emotions**  
**

**Description**: After defeating the game. The players got the Ultimate Prize.

**Note: **This is what happens when I listen to**【Homestuck】Mother (Piano)「+ lyrics & vocals」【horizon】**on youtube for 4 hours straight right after finishing Homestuck and still in semi-shock that I'm up to date on Homestuck and hearing that its about to end soon. Emotional stuff happens. So I sit down and start typing my own ending of Homestuck.

Rated T. Thanks Karkat. -_-

* * *

Surrounded by darkness. Standing on a platform. Four doors stand. Sgrub Alpha, Sgrub, Sburb Alpha, and Sburb Beta.

Green text appears.

**"Congratulations. You have earned the _Ultimate Prize_."**

A blue glowing sphere floats in the middle of the platform. Whispers are heard in the darkness.

"This is the _end_?"

A gray hand reaches out, and takes the prize.

"What will happen after this?"

_"We will go to a new universe."_

"What kind of universe."

"One that we have created."

"But we haven't discussed it."

"We don't need to."

_"Are we going to see each other again?"_

The 4 doors opens to the new universe. And all heads turn towards the open door they belong to.

Footsteps and soft "goodbyes" are heard. As 12 shadows step through the Sgrub and Sgrub Alpha doors.

And 4 shadows step through the Sburb Alpha and the Sburb Beta door.

Onto the new universe that the 32 players have created together.

**"Thank you for Playing."**

* * *

A young man suddenly wakes up from the dream. Cold sweat trickles down his cheek and he glances around his bedroom. He clutches onto the covers as he hears his own quick breathing. _Another dream... _He thinks to himself. He sits up in his bed as his breathing slows down and he takes a deep breath. He glances at his computer, sitting on top of his desk across the room.

He hasn't touched his computer in a year.

He wanted to just lay back and think. If he could believe what had happened a year ago. If it was all a very, very long dream. If those planets were real. If those humans, and those aliens that he called "his friends" were real. If everything was real.

And if it was, if anyone would remember him?

The young man does not even remember anything that happened before "his dream". Which leaves him confused. Nothing seems out of ordinary. His father bakes him cake, and does not seem to act different. Everything seems normal, calm and peaceful. Yet something felt very wrong.

Everyday passes on, and his doubts would increase if everything that happened in his dream were real.

Each day passes and those faces that he would used to smile at, blur and fade away.

He is beginning to forget.

But somewhere underneath the images, a deep soft empty pain is in his heart. A feeling of something missing. Whoever those people were, whoever those gray shadows were. He misses them for some reason.

A deep feeling of longing to see them again stabs at his heart whenever he tries to think of them.

The young man glances at his clock. It is 6am.

He cannot sleep again, he does not want to have the chance of having the strange dream again.

* * *

A young man stands nearby his window in his bedroom. It just so happens that today, the 13th of April, is this young man's birthday.

The young man had always already had a name. The young man looks out his window into the quiet and empty neighborhood. He whispers his breath of air onto the cold glass. "John Egbert..." he leans his head on the glass and looks outside in his cold, windy neighborhood. He sits there his mind wandering as he blankly watches the sun slowly rise.

He thinks about his dream.

The green door that he walked in. He was the last of the 4 in his group that walked through the door. Before he walks through the door, he takes one glance at everyone else's backs walking into their doors, and not turning back.

He hears a soft. "Come on John." and he turns around to see a figure in red turned towards him standing halfway in the door as if he were waiting for him.

John's eyes widen and his heart comes to a halt. That figure in the red. Who was that? What was the name of that person? John shuts his eyes and tries to remember. He searches in his brain all the blurred, fading memories and dreams hes had. After about ten minutes he lets out a frustrated sigh.

"...ugh." He buries his face in his hands as he grabs grip of his raven hair in frustration. "I cant..."

He feels the distant familiarity with the familiar face. He can even hear the voices call out his name. He feels like he is so close to knowing them but so far in reviving the feeling of who they are.

He glances at his computer. It collects dust upon his table. He asked his dad to get rid of it since they weren't using it but his Dad objected, saying something like. "You will need it one day, my son."

John has no clue what that means. He sighs and shakes his head and looks outside once more.

The quiet streets of John's neighborhood. The hollow tune of the empty mailbox bellows throughout the wind, cloudy skies welcoming the soft sun rising from its bed.

John has never seen any of his neighbors before. His neighborhood has always been quiet. He even wonders if him and his Dad are the only living family in the neighborhood.

John's eyes trail to the side where he spots his bed. He gawks at a cake sitting there. Did Dad leave it there?

John picks up his glasses and puts them on and sees that the cake was gone.

"Huh?" John shakes his head. _Am I imagining things now? _He glances out the window. _I should probably stop trying to think so hard. _

Then John hears a soft grumble and his hands immediately fly to his tummy. "Guess I'd better go downstairs and get something to eat." He mumbles to himself.

John opens his bedroom door and walks down the hall and downstairs and stopped halfway at the stairs to see a massive present in the middle of the living room. He takes off his glasses to rubs his eyes and puts them back on to find nothing.

John frowns._ Am I really so much hungry that I'm hallucinating? _He thinks to himself. He walks over to where the present once stood and reached out his hand to make sure if the present wasn't invisible or anything like that.

His hand touched and felt nothing.

John let his hand drop to his side and he turned his head to look at the mantle of his fireplace. Where did Nanna's ashes go? He had a feeling they used to be there. But now they aren't, what is going on today?

John felt something was off today, he felt like something was completely missing. As if he were forgetting something. He hated the uncomfortable feeling, he felt frustration towards himself and everything.

John sighed and took a deep breath as he told himself _Calm down, today is my birthday. I shouldn't be upset. I should be enjoying my day with everyone. _

John's eyebrows furrowed. Who is _everyone_? He shook his head. _Ugh. Nevermind. Lets just get some food, shut up and eat, and enjoy the rest of my birthday with Dad. _

John then heard a noise in the kitchen. _Oh great. Dad is in the kitchen. Probably baking cakes. Oh well, I should just walk in, grab some real food, get out. _

John bit his lip pondering whether he should get a disguise. Then dismissed the idea and he smiled to himself, thinking it foolish and silly.

He walked in the kitchen and opens the door to find Dad baking a cake.

Sky blue eyes lightened up as he saw Dad standing there in a apron with steaming Betty Crocker cakes in his hand that he took out from the oven. Many cakes were spread out across the kitchen counters and desks wherever they could fit. John sure hated Betty Crocker, but he felt a little glad seeing Dad.

John smiled and open his mouth and reached out to his father.

"Dad..."

The image of Dad and all of his cakes faded away before John's eyes.

John stood there in the kitchen speechless, his eyes looked as if they were shattered.

"Dad?"

It was only John standing in the kitchen.

"...Where is he?"

It was only John who is living in his house.

"Where is Dad..."

It was only John.

John felt his throat choke up. Tears welled in his eyes, he cannot explain why he is feeling this way but he is feeling like some part of him was missing.

John withdrew his hand and held it close to his beating chest.

"What is going on..." He choked out the words. He looked around the kitchen frantically. His eyes scanning for Dad. His eyes scanning for the present. His eyes scanning for his Nanna's ashes. His eyes scanning for the part of him that is missing.

John ran out the kitchen and dashed into his room. He slams the door shut behind him and jumps in bed and pulls the blankets over his head.

"What is wrong with me..." he cries.

"What is wrong with today..."

"Where is Dad..."

"Why all the questions?!" he yells, his voice muffled in the blankets and he cries.

John felt very confused. He swore he was with his Dad. He thinks about where his Dad could be. Probably at work. But Dad would take the day off to spend time with him. Maybe off to get more cake mix? No, the kitchen wasn't even touched this morning. There are no existence of Dad or Nanna in the Egbert house. It was only John.

John began to question his sanity. Has he been hallucinating his conversations with Dad? Has he imagined that conversation he had with his Dad about getting rid of the computer? Does Dad even exist?

John wiped his tears and sat up and glared at the computer, from his bed.

Then John got up and took off his pajamas, he put on his white t-shirt with a green slime print with white shorts. He adjusted his glasses and got up as he went back downstairs.

Im going to find dad. He mentally spoke in a voice of determination.

When John reached the bottom of the stairs, his face filled with many mixed emotions, he opened the door.  
The entire house was lit up as white glowing light left the beaming sun and rode with the clean gust of wind through the door. The only thing that resisting the flow of the wind and light was a figure in red who stands in front of the door, his hand knotted in a fist and held up as if he were about to knock on the door.

The figure has a record print on his white t-shirt with red short sleeves. The blonde male was a little taller than John and looked to be the same age as the raven, his eyes hidden by shades that looked as if they were used for a long time but well taken care of.

The young man drops his hand to his side. His eyebrows raised and his mouth slightly opened as if he were surprised to see John. John's sky blue eyes widened as he and the blonde male in , as if time slowed down and stopped, as if they could communicate into each others eyes, even through the black eyewear the figure wears.

A warm and relieved smile spread across the young man's lips and he gave off a kind expression. a type of expression that held many meaning and memories behind it that is inconceivable to John.

John had a slight confused look on his face, the first sense of feeling that this guy had gave off was nostalgia. John had a lost feeling that he had met this guy before. An image of a young man in a red cloak who held out his hand to John under the steps of a green house door flashed in John's mind so fast before the raven could make sense of it.

The warm smile didn't cease and the blonde finally spoke, pushing up his shades as if he were trying to be cool.

"Its been so long since I've been to this house." He looked around in the house, his facial expression calm and deeply in peace as calm and warm as a small, undisturbed flame.

He turned around and faced John his expression slightly more lively and playful.

"And where the hell have you been anyway?" he asked in a half angry, half animated tone. As if John were his best friend and if he were expecting him somewhere.

John only blinked and he became a little flustered. "Ah... Huh?" Was all he could say. He looked at the blonde as if he were a scared cat. He did not know who this guy is, and he is confused on why this guy is talking about him and his house as if they knew each other for years.

The blonde sensed John's aloofness with the raven's strange tone in his voice and his warm smile faltered.

"John? You okay bro?" he asked.

John jumped at the sound of his name. How did this guy know my name? John felt panic and another confusing situation is added onto his plate. John opened his mouth and spoke his first sentence to the blonde.

"I think you have me mistaken for another John... I don't know you..."

"Wha..." The figure's faltered smile turned to horrified and concerned.

John could feel the heart of the other individual sinking with the facial expression the blonde was showing.

Before John could react, the blonde walked up to him so quick and took hold of the young man's shoulders with both of his hands. John could see that the blonde's facial expression had saddened.

"You don't remember me."

It wasn't a question. It was a fact, the blonde voice was hard and cold like a candle flame being blown out.

John blinked hard and squirmed under the blonde's touch. "Was I supposed to?" he asked, innocently.

That was the wrong response to give.

John felt his shoulders being clutched onto and he opened his eyes to see the blonde's eyebrows furrowed with rising anger.

"You mean to tell me..." his voice slowly got darker. John felt uncomfortable, he blinked a few times and focused onto the blonde's shades.

"That you don't remember anything..." the blonde growled.

John swore that he saw two crimson colored pupils, burning like flames hidden by the darkness of the shades, matching the frustration of the blonde holding onto him.

"...After everything that we have all been through!?" the blonde's voice weakened and his face gave off the feeling of disappointment and hurt. His grip on both of John's shoulders weakened and John got out of his grasp and he gently swore under his breath, his head hanged low.

John glanced to the side. "I-Im sorry, I have to go-"

The blonde snatched John's hand and pulled the male with him outside and closed the door to the house.

"H-Hey! Wait-"


End file.
